“A Conversation with Brian Perry”
Speakers: Brian Perry and Rev. Melanie Eyre
KIDS PROGRAM ~ Sundays at 10:30am via Zoom – Contact us to register
Community Circle Zoom Meeting/Discussion: Community Circle Discussion Wednesday, April 27, 2022. 7:00pm – 8:30pm.
Our weekly Community Circles discussion is a Zoom event, and if you need the link please email us at info@oneworldspiritualcenter.net or call 678-214-6938.
Do you have a topic or idea you’d like to discuss? If you do, please contact Rev. Melanie at the same email or phone.
Opening Prayer
Isaiah 40:31
“Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint”.
Prayer
Mother God of heaven and earth, of all nations and peoples, all faiths and no faith,
reveal yourself to those who are suffering, reveal yourself to all who are refugees,
reveal yourself to those who are powerful, reveal yourself to all who are powerless,
reveal yourself to those who are ill, reveal yourself to all who are dying,
reveal yourself to ordinary people in our everyday lives,
so that this world might receive your love and your compassion;
For You are the one who does not hesitate to respond to our call.
Amen.
~ unknown author
Community Prayer
Joy Within Our Reach
Beloveds,
There is nothing I can give you which you have not;
But there is much, very much, that while I cannot give, you can take.
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.
Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant.
Take peace!
The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy.
Take joy!
There is a radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see,
And to see we have only to look.
I beseech you to look!
Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by the covering,
Cast them away as ugly, or heavy, or hard.
Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor,
Woven of love, by wisdom, with power.
Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you.
Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty ––
That angel’s hand is there, the gift is there, with the wonder of an
overshadowing presence.
Our joys, too. Be not content with them as joys.
They, too, conceal diviner gifts.
Life is so full of meaning and purpose,
So full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth
but conceals your heaven.
And so, at this time, I greet you with profound esteem.
And with the prayer that for you, now and forever,
The day breaks, and all the shadows flee away.
Amen.
–– adapted from a prayer by Fra Giovanni Giocondo
TALK TRANSCRIPT
No transcript available. Please click here to listen to this discussion which starts at 7:21.
Reading
From “The Spiritual Dimension of the War in Ukraine” by Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop Borys Gudziak, the metropolitan archbishop of Philadelphia and rector and president of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine.
The three things our church explicitly set as our vocation in this crisis a month ago are to pray, to inform, and to help. There is a lot of disinformation. There are a lot of lies out there. The lies are specific lies like the minister of foreign affairs, Sergey Lavrov, a few days ago in Istanbul saying, “We didn’t invade Ukraine. We’re not invading.” Or the general lie, which is becoming law in Russia, “It’s not a war, it’s a special operation.” Or, “We’re working against the Nazis led by a Jewish president.”
They’re very specific lies, but there’s the deep lie of the system, the corruption, the oligarchic kleptocracy that is led by an authoritarian ruler who has nostalgia for empire and wants to recolonize. That’s a lie because it very explicitly negates the value, the dignity of other persons, other cultures, other histories.
So, calling that out, speaking to it, pointing out where it is not true by saying the truth not only is liberating but also becomes a guide for our posture, our relationships, what we do and what we say.
(Note: Kleptocracy: a government or state in which those in power exploit national resources and steal; rule by a thief or thieves.)
This service aired on April 24, 2022
